Solar Lottery

Solar Lottery

Cover of first edition (paperback)
Author	Philip K. Dick
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Ace Books
Publication date	May 1955
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	188 pp

Solar Lottery is a 1955 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was his first published novel and contains many of the themes present in his later work. It was also published in altered form in the UK as World of Chance. The main story is about a man named Ted Benteley who lives in a strange world. The world is dominated by percentages and lottery. These lotteries choose the next leader and a new assassin whose job is to try to kill the leader or "quizmaster". This makes it the case that everybody in society has the opportunity to be selected as a leader or assassin. Benteley unexpectedly gets chosen to be a part of the committee trying to assassinate the new Quizmaster and he must decide what he is going to do.

Solar Lottery takes place in a world dominated by logic and numbers. Loosely based on a numerical military strategy employed by U.S. and Soviet intelligence called minimax (part of game theory), the Quizmaster, head of world government, is chosen through a sophisticated, computerized lottery. This element of randomization in the society serves as a form of social control since nobody, in theory at least, has any more of an advantage over anybody else in becoming the next Quizmaster.

Society is further entertained by a televised selection process in which an assassin is also allegedly chosen at random. By countering and putting down these threats to his life (using telepathic bodyguards as defense), the leader gains the respect of the people. If he loses his life, a new Quizmaster, as well as another assassin, are again randomly selected. Quizmasters have historically held office for timespans ranging from a few minutes to several years. The average life expectancy is therefore on the order of a couple of weeks.

The plot follows the story of Ted Benteley, an idealistic young worker unhappy with his position in life. Benteley attempts to get a job in the prestigious office of Quizmaster Reese Verrick. Reese has just been forced out of office, however, and Benteley gets tricked into swearing an unbreakable oath of personal fealty to the once and former world leader. Verrick then makes it clear that his organization's mission is to assassinate the new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright, in the world's most anticipated "competition".

In order to defeat the telepathic security web protecting Cartwright, Verrick and his team invent an android named Keith Pellig into which different volunteers' minds are alternately embedded for the purpose of breaking any kind of steady telepathic lock on the assassin. Cartwright ultimately kills Verrick, and Benteley, much to his own astonishment, becomes the next Quizmaster.